


Love is an Obstacle Course

by navaan



Category: Ally McBeal (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family, Fix-It, Getting Back Together, Misunderstandings, POV Female Character, Post-Season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:40:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21839869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Ally moves back to New York for her daughter. She tries to build up a new life. Then someone calls and Maddie picks up the phone.
Relationships: Ally McBeal/Larry Paul
Comments: 14
Kudos: 27
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Love is an Obstacle Course

**Author's Note:**

  * For [evilythedwarf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilythedwarf/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide! I hope you enjoy this small attempt at giving them the happy ending they deserved.

Maddie opens another box of books and then sits back on the floor to watch Ally contemplate the shelves behind her desk. 

The office smells of fresh paint and new furniture. But the new sign at the door reads “Ally McBeal. Attorney at Law.”

Her aunt had helped Maddie pick it out and paid for it and Ally had accepted it, flustered, but touched. 

“Renee wants us to come to Boston next weekend,” Ally says, “or she threatens to come up here and redecorate our new apartment.”

It’s not a real threat. Renee and her mom are used to talking to each other daily and Ally coming to New York. They’re trying to figure out how things will go from here.

“She could work at your firm.”

“I don’t have a firm,” Ally points out. “I have an office.”

But she already had a client and despite the changes all of this had made in her life, she hadn’t complained about New York once.

“You could have asked Victor to set up the shelves.”

“No,” Ally said and it looked like she had no idea what to do with her hands for a moment. “Sometimes, you know, sometimes, sometimes that is just how it turns out.”

Maddie nodded, not sure she understands at all. She was only ten but already she knew that life could be complicated. To her, it seemed less complicated in New York, back at school with her friends, with her aunt. Even with Ally who _was_ her mom, who had come here with her and for her.

"You should have fun," Maddie said and wasn't thinking of Victor and how for a while he'd made Ally smile but meant happiness. The feeling that welled up in her, every time she saw Lauren at school, every time Ally picked her up from school.

"Yeah, I have fun," Ally said and chuckled. "After I sorted all this out."

There were still too many boxes to unpack. Maddie helped, got bored while Ally sorted thick books. She sat in the new comfy office chair dangling her feet when Ally decided to order them food and waited for her to pick it up at the door, when the phone rang.

The new phone.

Maddie knew Ally had clients — only a few. Was this a client? Old or new?

Was this what would get Ally started here? Make her like New York? Make her want to stick around?

Ally was still in the hallway.

Maddie did what any responsible daughter would have done.

She picked up.

"McBeal law firm," she announced, confident it sounded right.

"Law firm? I was looking for... Who's there?" It was a man speaking, his voice warm.

"Maddie Harrington speaking," she added, guessing that an assistant would have announced it right away. 

"Hello, Maddie Harrington," the man said and introduced himself: "Larry Paul."

She was mollified by his politeness.

"I'm looking for a lawyer. The person who gave me this number said your law firm is where I can find Ally McBeal? Formerly of Cage/Fish & McBeal?"

"Yeah," she said. "We can take your case."

"Oh," the man said and chuckled. "My case? I'm really just looking for..." He paused. "I do have the right number, right? You sound a little young, Maddie. How old are you?"

She sighed. "I can write down your number, if you want to talk to mom."

"Mom?"

 _Hello?_ she thought. _He called us!_

"Ally? McBeal? The lawyer."

There was a long pause on the other end.

"Hello?" Maddie tried. "Can I take down a note?"

"Is your mom there? Can I talk to _her_?" 

Maddie looked over. Ally was still outside, talking to the delivery person.

"She'll be back in a moment. Can she call you back?"

"That's fine," the voice said at the other end. There was the hint of a sad smile in his voice. "I'll call back. Or come by-"

"Okay, then bye," she replied and put the phone down.

Ally came around the corner with a bag of food and saw her there. "Where you on the phone? Did you call Lauren from the office phone?"

"I picked up," she said. "It was a client."

Ally sat down their food with a frown. "Who? Marisha?"

What had been his name?

"Someone called Paul," she explained, happy she remembered and helped Ally to open all the boxes of Thai food and set them out on the side table.

She hadn't even noticed she was ravenously hungry.

"I have no clients named Paul," Ally said and stole a spring roll from the bag.

Maddie shrugged, phone call already half forgotten.

* * *

They come to pick up Ally after her first official trial in New York after the move and Maddie is excited to see her step out of the court room. She doesn't expect her mom to stride from the courtroom with her client at her side nearly stumbling in an attempt to rush down the hallways.

"Ally," someone calls.

It's a man in a dark pinstriped suit and wearing dark rimmed glasses.

"Ally wait," he called.

Ally's client raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps you should talk to him. Whatever that was in there..."

"There was nothing in there," Ally said, gesticulating and turning on her heals to jab a finger at the man's chest. "There was absolutely nothing going on in there, right? Mr. Paul? Because you're in Chicago!"

"Yes!" he said back. "And you're in Boston!"

"This isn't," Ally nearly shouted and waved her finger around, "any of your business. Because _you left_ for _Chicago_."

"I'm sorry," the man said deflating. "I know I..."

"Suck at goodbyes," she said.

"You could have called too."

"You could have not run away."

"I was about to ask you to marry me!"

"And then you left!"

Then both threw their hands up.

Maddie felt her heart race. There was change in the air again and she didn't like it at all.

"Mom?" she asked as loudly as possible, grabbing her aunts hand.

It pulled Ally right out of the argument. "Maddie? Oh, Maddie, what are you..."

"You're Maddie? You must be at least..." He looked Maddie over with the air of surprise.

"None of your business," Ally said decisively and came over to them, reached out for Maddie's hand. She took it.

Calmer, Ally said. "I understand some things better now, Larry," she said over her shoulder. "You had to go to Sam. Why are you not with him now?"

"I am," the man said. "Started school in New York this year."

They stared at each other.

"Mom?" Maddie said again.

"Is she...?"

"My daughter," Ally said and they walked out without another word.

* * *

"Who's Larry?" Maddie asked later that evening when her emotions have settled, but Ally's hands fly nervously over their dinner plates.

"He's... He's someone I dated."

Maddie let that sink in.

* * *

Roses arrived to the office a few days later. 

"I know I'm as bad at hellos as I am at goodbyes," the card read. "I apologize."

Ally threw the card away. At the time Maddie thought it was for the best and wrote a message to Lauren to let her know her mom wasn't going to be swayed by flowers.

* * *

Mom came home from work with a smile a week later.

Humming a song.

* * *

"Larry Paul is in New York?" Renee's eyes went wide. "And you didn't tell me? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. Fine, really. It's old news. We met in court."

"Why's he in New York?"

"His son," Ally said softly. "We had coffee in front of the courthouse."

"You had coffee?? And you didn't tell me?"

"It's no big deal," Ally pointed out. "We're just talking. Closure feels good."

Maddie chose the moment to walk in, tired of listening from the hallway.

"Closure," Renee repeated. "Uh-huh."

* * *

Mr. Cage called the next day. Maddie was half afraid he would ask her mom to return to Boston.

But Ally looked happier with her life in New York now. She kissed Maddie on the top of her head and hummed a song Maddie had never heard before.

"Are you dating?" Maddie asked.

"Not really," Ally said. "We tried that."

"You and Larry?" she drew out the words.

"Uh-huh."

"Not dating anymore?"

"Just coffee," she said.

When Maddie told Lauren, her friend confirmed what Maddie already suspected: "They are totally dating."

* * *

"Hi Maddie," Larry greeted her the first time Maddie went along with Ally on one of their not-date-dates. 

He had a kind smile.

He made her mom laugh.

And there was something... something that had been missing in Ally. Something that hadn't been there when she'd been in Boston, with Victor, or in New York at the beginning.

* * *

"Are you getting married?"

Ally hugged her and held her close. "Not right now. Too many changes at once are not good. I'm not even dating."

* * *

Three months later, Larry stayed at their apartment.

They both talked to Maddie about it.

He played scrabble with her long after Ally fell asleep.

* * *

Maddie was beginning to like him. To Maddie he was always kind, even when she tried to be a brat. With Ally he argued and squabbled and joked and challenged and sometimes just soothed and calmed. 

They never ran out of things to talk about.

A new sofa turned up over night.

"We're dating," Larry said over breakfast as if that explained the sofa. 

"You moved in," Maddie pointed out. "Weeks ago. I'm not a child."

"Obviously not," he said with a crooked smile, then mouthed: "Don't tell your mom."

She laughed.

* * *

Sam explained the truth of the matter to her months later, about how their parents had dated and split and how he'd been glad then but his dad had never been as happy after. They were watching her mom and his dad argue about ice cream flavors.

"They'll marry," she said with confidence.

"Yeah," Sam admitted. "They probably will."

They nodded at each other — a silent understanding that sometimes parents had to find their own path. And it looked like theirs had found their way back on theirs.

* * *

Maddie was only twelve when Ally and Larry got married — but she had already learned that love was an obstacle course. No straight line led to family and love. The important thing was to recognize what you had when you had it.

Maddie knew.

She was proud that all the jumping over obstacles had brought her to this family.


End file.
